Grit
Cover of Grit by Angela Duckworth
Rating: 9️⃣
Grit is Angela's upbringing come to life, from discouraging comments from her dad to seeing her students struggle in Maths to seeing Marines quit day in and day out. Her intrigue in human behaviour has led her to her TED Talk and her work with the Seattle Seahawks.
I first came across the book from Ali Abdaal's recommendation on his YouTube series, Book Club. Grit does have the scientific touch that academics tend to display when writing, speaking of the likes of Cal Newport and Matthew Walker who are both renowned academics in their own fields.
Angela's attempt to simplify 'Achievement' with regards to 'Talent', 'Effort' and 'Skill' probably speaks the most to everyone. I really appreciate the theoretical equation that she made to illustrate the power of effort(grit).
Talent x Effort = Skill
Skill x Effort = Achievement
Therefore by simplifying these equations, you can deduce that Achivement is given by:
Achievement = Talent x Effort²
Bringing about an old saying, "Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard." After reading the book, I've come to appreciate the quote even more now.
About Angela Duckworth
Angela Duckworth is an academic and psychologist, focusing her research and energy on scientific studies about "Grit" and "Self-Control". To name a few of her accomplishments, she is the recipient of the MacArthur Genius grant, Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professorship and a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.
Angela's TED Talk has garnered over 21 million views and is available in over 50 languages. The TED Talk brings her expertise of Grit to light as she defines grit and provides real life scenarios to it. She backs her words with her own research with a variety of personnel, from US Marines to Salespeople to Teachers.
Angela has had a winding path to where she is now. Growing up, she was always told by her father that she wasn't "talented" enough, that she didn't have the innate ability to perform. She followed this up by graduating from Harvard and Oxford, and immediately started working with McKinsey, a prestigious international consulting firm, but left to pursue teaching Maths in New York public schools. As a teacher, she happens upon her life calling, "Grit", in her students and proceeds to carry out research on it at the University of Pennsylvania.
Afterwards, Angela spearheaded the industry regarding grit research and gave her TED Talk in 2013. From the TED Talk, the Seattle NFL coaching staff reached out to Angela to build their team culture and subsequently worked with them towards their run to the Superbowl victory in 2014.
Summary
Grit is ultimately divided into three sections. Beginning with an introduction to grit, defining it and illustrating its importance in our everyday lives. Angela then follows that by providing methods to develop grit, with one chapter focusing on internal stimuli such as our purpose of action and our short-term interests. The next chapter then focuses on external stimuli such as our community and the resistance of grit.
Talent is a focus of the book as well, talking about the stolen limelight (from effort and grit). She shines the light on her previous employer, McKinsey, and the gruesome culture for "talent" in the workplace. On certain metrics, the bottom 10% were fired yearly. When talking about McKinsey, Angela also brings up an article written back then titled "The War for Talent" and the negative influences caused by the focus on talent. Angela justifies that by pointing achievements and successes towards "talent" and away from "effort", we paint "Success" as something mythical and unattainable to us commoners.
Angela keeps her book actionable as well with two chapters focuses on culturing grit, both internally and personally as well as externally and with your actions and community. She talks about one's passion and perseverance, and how these play a part in the larger picture of life. She points towards these stimuli as compasses in life to direct our actions and how they can build grit.
Top 5 Takeaways
Grit is the best indicator for success; not talent, not innate ability, not giftedness.
Angela has conducted studies that prove that Grit has been the most accurate indicator of success
Whether that's across seventh-graders or the Marine Corps or professional athletes.She's also had the pleasure of extended her work across a multitude of individuals across a multitude of backgrounds and being able to match out the circumstantial differences
Grit is the cultivating of an internal passion and reacting with an external perseverance.
This is one of Angela's quotes from her TED Talk but I figured to adapt it slightly.Angela's book revolves around developing yourself with personal awareness and projecting that into your environment.
Grit can constantly and purposefully be developed.
The malleability of Grit is something Angela believes in. She understands innate ability but she doesn't believe that it limits us.
"Most humans never even get close to hitting the ceiling of their talent ". This quote very aptly summarises her outlook on our natural ability.
Purpose comes from understanding that what we do matters.
Angela teaches that purpose in life doesn't necessarily come from within. It may also come from the larger picture, where our actions have a positive impact on something external, whether it's an individual or a whole community.
Purpose has normally been used in a selfish way to define our personal goals; but Angela flips it on its head, saying that purpose is more effective with positive impact externally.
Modern-day technology can limit our Grit.
With easy-access to instant gratification, humans in the past decade have not evolved enough to meet the demands of technology.
Technology poses a threat to our ability to maintain attention and opens us up to the Shiny Object Syndrome. I would be lying if I said I have never fallen victim to this. Angela tackles this by creating rules around technology, keeping technology in a supportive role rather than a dictator role in our lives.